


The Night Will Only Know

by Brambleshadow_of_WindClan



Category: NCIS
Genre: Case Fic, F/M, Gen, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-08-17
Updated: 2011-08-17
Packaged: 2017-10-22 18:06:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/240996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brambleshadow_of_WindClan/pseuds/Brambleshadow_of_WindClan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What happens when a murder is committed exactly like in a song? Read and find out. Tiva! Please R&R!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

The full moon shone its cold light down two people, a man and woman, as they sat in the car; both of them were already seeing someone else, but they couldn't stay away from each other. They parked on some old backstreet and finally went where desire dared them to go. The couple laid down in the back seat and, well, paint your own picture here.

They would pay for their deceiving. Had they known what was going to happen, they would have picked another spot that evening.

Suddenly, just outside the steamy windows, the night was shattered by a woman's scream. The couple sat motionless and scared out of their wits. With trembling hands, they wiped away the steam fogging the windows. When they did, they saw a horrible sight.

They saw a woman outside the car, stumbling, begging, and pleading as she tried to run away from someone shadowing her. The couple saw a metallic gleam as the knife caught the moonlight.

"No, please!" the woman pleaded, but to no avail. She stumbled and fell. The knife flashed as it came down again and again. Soon it was wet with blood. They watched her fall in silence to save their own alliance; the reason for the violence just the night will only know.

Once the person had gone, the lovers gunned the engine and tore out of there, hoping they hadn't been seen.

When they were a safe distance away, the man said, "If our boss found out about that, he'd kill us."

"Then we'd better not tell him."

"He'll figure it out anyway."

They drove the rest of the way is silence.

When they pulled up in front of her apartment, she looked back. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure."

He watched as she let herself in, then drove home.


	2. Chapter One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: Don't own the team. I am not Don Bellisario (spelling please!). However, I do own the case and any characters that aren't in the show.

At the NCIS headquarters in the Navy Yard, Anthony DiNozzo was sitting at his desk throwing paper balls at his partner's waste basket. McGee was getting seriously annoyed, but tried not to show it. Finally, he snapped. "Tony, if you're trying to hit me, just do it!"

"Come on, Probie. The unaimed throw never misses." To prove his point, Tony tried again. This time, it landed in McGee's lap.

Finally, the guys' other partner, Ziva David, noticed what they were doing. "Tony, are you trying to make a basket?"

"Huh? Oh, no."

"Then stop throwing paper balls at McGee."

Just then, the team's boss Leroy Jethro Gibbs walked in, cup of coffee in hand. "Gear up," he told them.

"What's going on, Boss?" McGee asked, grabbing his gear. Tony and Ziva were way ahead of him.

"Dead petty officer in Norfolk." Gibbs didn't miss a beat as he grabbed his gear and continued walking to the elevator, his team scrambling after him. Ziva slipped in a second before the doors closed with a pleasant ding!.

"Ziva, you drive," Gibbs said, tossing the keys to her.

DiNozzo and McGee groaned as Ziva smiled. If possible, she was a worse driver than Gibbs-and that was saying a lot. The girl had only one speed when driving: fast. No, scratch that. She had two speeds: fast and faster. To put it simply, she practically almost killed everyone on the road when driving-especially Tony and McGee.

A few minutes later, everyone was inside the vehicle of torture. Ziva hit the gas, and they tore out of the Yard, on their way to Norfolk.

~*~*~*~

"So, what's the case, Boss?" McGee asked.

"I'll tell you when we get there, McGee."

Of course, as luck would have it, they were a minute away from the crime scene. Ziva hit the brakes. DiNozzo and McGee were thrown forward against their seat belts. There was a police car already there; all they had done was tape off the alley using the familiar yellow CRIME SCENE: DO NOT CROSS tape.

"Boss, are you trying to kill us?" Tony demanded as he got out of the van.

"Well, yeah, DiNozzo, I am," Gibbs said sarcastically. "Get to work. McGee. Ziva. Bag and tag. DiNizzo: statements."

McGee took out a camera and started snapping photos of the crime scene, while Ziva started looking around for evidence. While they were busy, Gibbs and Tony walked over to the police car. A middle-aged woman wearing a police uniform greeted them.

"Where are the witnesses?" Gibbs asked.

"Their homes," she replied. "I'll be happy to give you their adresses, though," she added when Gibbs fixed her with a icy stare.

"You do that. Now, where is Ducky?"

Right at that moment, Ducky and his assistant, Palmer drove up. Ducky hopped out of the van. "Grab the gurney, would you Mr. Palmer?"

"Oh sure, of cousre Doctor." Palmer scrambled out of the truck and went in back to fetch the gurney and body bag. Meanwhile, Ducky snapped on his gloves and started to examine the body.

"There are several stab wounds to the chest and her neck's slit. No sign of sexual abuse," he muttured to himself.

"Time of death?"

"Oh, I'd say she died around midnight, so she's probably been dead about nine hours, Jethro." Dr. Mallard twisted his head around to look up at his old friend.

Ziva trotted up. "I think we found the murder weapon," she said, holding out a knife stained with blood.

Gibbs looked scornful. "What kind of person leaves the murder weapon at the crime scene?"

"A stupid one?" Tony offered, coming up behind Ziva. She turned, startled, fist raised to strike. When she saw it was DiNozzo, she relaxed. She was still mad, though. "If you value your life, _never_ try sometjhing like that again."

He backed off, holding his hands up in surrender.

"Enough messing around you two," Gibbs said. "McGee!"

"Yeah, Boss?" McGee looked up from where he was finishing up putting something in an evidence bag.

"We're done here! Get in the van."

Ziva made a grab for the keys in Gibbs's hand, but he whisked them away. "And this time, I drive."


	3. Chapter Two

Back at the Navy Yard, Gibbs' team was hard at work. McGee had the photos from the crime scene up on the plasma, and the whole team was staring hard, as if to pick up some sort of clue. **(quit looking at me like that. It's a crime story, after all!)**

"Okay, let's review what we know," Gibbs said. "David --"

"Uh, I have nothing," she said sheepishly.

"You're kidding." Gibbs gave her one of his killer stares.

"Uh, no."

"DiNozzo!" Gibbs had found a new target.

"Nothing, Boss. Sorry."

"DiNozzo, rule nember 6: Never apologize. It's a sign of weakness."

"Yes, Boss."

"McGee, please tell me you have something for me!" Gibbs said exasperatingly.

"I have the addresses of the witnesses," he offered. He tapped a few keys on his keyboard, and the driver's liscences of James Sutton and Rachel Reed popped up on the plasma. "They live in Norfolk, obviously. Mrs. Reed at 364 Countryside Lane and Mr. Sutton lives directly across the street."

Immediately, Gibbs went into action. "DiNozzo, David, you're with me. McGee, go down to Abby's lab and see what she's got from that blood-stained knife." He strode over to the elevator with Tony and Ziva close behind. As the doors closed, they saw McGee with a pleased grin on his face.

"Who's driving, Boss?" Tony asked.

"Me," Gibbs replied as Ziva made a grab for the keys.

Tony and Ziva groaned. They were dead, for sure. Gibbs just gave one of his half-smiles.

~*~*~*~

Four hours later, the three federal agents were parked on the street and facing the two houses.

"Tony, Ziva, you take Mrs. Reed. I'll take the boyfriend," Gibbs decided after a few moments of thinking. Was it his imagination, or were they happy to be working together? The team leader shook the thought from his mind and headed into James Sutton's house. When they saw Gibbs disappear inside, Tony and Ziva walked over to Mrs. Reed's house.

"Mrs. Reed, federal agents. We'd like to ask you some questions," Tony called through the screen door. After a few moments, the door opened and a wary face framed by long blond hair peered back at him and Ziva. "Yes?"

"Special Agents Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David, NCIS. We'd like to ask you some questions about a murder last night," Tony said.

"Oh. Please, come in," she offered, opening the door wider. The two NCIS agents stepped inside, grateful to be out of the cold October air. They followed her to the living room, where all three dropped onto the couch. Tony pulled out a small note pad and pencil, preparing to take notes.

Ziva went first. "Where were you last night at, around, say, midnight?"

Rachel blushed, her cheeks turning crimson. "I was on a date."

"With who?" Tony butted in. Ziva shut him up with a killer stare. She still wasn't as good as Gibbs, though, in his opinion.

Rachel's green eyes slammed shut for a few heartbeats, as if she was thinking about what to say next. She quickly opened them and admitted with a abashed smile, "Look, I was with my boyfriend."

"Your husband know you're having an affair?" Ziva asked.

"No. Please don't tell him." She looked pleadingly at the two agents.

"Oh, of course not," Tony reassured her, though his eyes were dancing mischeviously.

"Tony!" Ziva reprimanded him.

He looked innocently at her. "What?"

"Don't even think about -" She broke off when she noticed Mrs. Reed was staring at them curiously. "Forget it. I'll talk to you later. I'm sure Gibbs will, too."

Tony paled. "You wouldn't."

She ignored him and focused on the witness. "Where were you when you were on your, ah, 'date'?"

Mrs. Reed looked sheepish. "We ended up on a backstreet . . ."

She didn't need to say any more. Tony and Ziva got the message.

"What happened next?" Ziva prompted.

"There was a scream. We looked out the windows, and there was this woman trying to run away. . . ." She shuddered. "It was awful."

Ziva started to say more, but Tony put a hand on her arm to silence her. She felt a tiny electric jolt go through her when they connected. They stood. Tony said, "I think we're done here. But we'll need you to describe who you saw to a sketch artist."

"Sorry. I didn't get a very good look at him, it being dark and all."

"I understand," Ziva said, finding her voice. She handed Mrs. Reed her business card. "If you remember anything else, contact us." Without waiting for her response, she headed out the door. Tony, after a moment's stunned silence, followed her.

They exited the house just as Gibbs was walking over to the car. After tbey climbed in, DiNozzo asked, "How did it go, Boss?"

"How do you think it went, DiNozzo?" he snapped.

"All right?" he ventured.

"Yep. He said he didn't get a good view of the killer, though, due to it 'being dark and all.' But," he conitnued as Ziva's jaw dropped open, "he did say that it was a white male, dark hair, about 5 ' 6''. I don't really know about the height, but it's all we've got."

There was silence in the back. Gibbs looked back and saw DiNozzo slumped against the backseat, eyes closed as though he was asleep. Ziva asked him, "Do you want me to wake him up?"

"Naw. I have a better idea. Hold on." With a smile, Gibbs hit the gas, causing Tony and Ziva to be thrown forward. Immediately, Tony's eyes snapped open.

"Are we there yet?"

"Not for about another four hours and 55 minutes, we're not."

~*~*~*~

Three hours and fifty-five minutes later (although it seemed like two hours), they were back in the bullpen.

DiNozzo looked up from the computer screen. "You know, I just realized this reminds me of -"

"A movie!" McGee and Ziva said in unison.

"Nope. A --"

Suddenly, Gibbs' phone rang. He picked up and answered, "Yeah. Gibbs." He listened for a moment to whatever the other person had to say, then replied, "Sure, Abbs, I'll be right there."

He slammed down the phone and headed down into Labby (a.k.a Lab of Abby. Or, as Abby likes to call it, Labby.) Of course, he stopped on the way down to buy her her daily Caf-Pow. "What'dya got, Abby?"

The Gothic forensic scientist turned to face him, white labcoat and black pigtails fanning out. "Gibbs! You scared me!" she protested idignantly.

"Sorry," he said, not really meaning it. "Is it worthy of this?" he asked, waving the Caf-Pow in front of her.

"Yes!" she exclaimed, making a grab for it. Gibbs whisked it out of her way. "Well, I found a partial print on the knife. I'm running it through AFIS now."

"Anything else?"

"Yep. This reminds me of a song I like . . ."

"About the case, Abby."

"Oh, sorry." She turned and headed to the computer. Typing a command, she brought up photos of the crime scene. "Does anything about this look odd to you?"

Gibbs squinted at the pictures. There were several drops of blood; nothing odd there. They didn't look as if they'd been staged - like at one case they had at a motel where the entire room was staged to look like a crime scene. Then he noticed the shape they were making. It looked like a letter, but he couldn't see it clearly. "Are you telling me she tired to tell us who killed her by writing in her own blood?" he asked. It reminded him of a case they had had where that wife had killed her husband and he had written a letter on the windshield, telling NCIS who killed him. . . . .

"Huh?"

"Look at the drops, Abbs." He pointed. Her expression cleared.

"Ohh," she said slowly.

Gibbs handed her the Caf-Pow. "Good work, Abbs," he whispered before heading out the door and back into the bullpen.


	4. Chapter Three

Upstairs, while Gibbs was in Labby, the rest of the team pestered Tony about what the case reminded him of.

"So, if it wasn't a movie, what was it?" Ziva finally asked, getting right to the point.

Tony grinned as he replied, "A song."

McGee and Ziva stared at him.

"You're joking," Timothy managed after a moment of stunned silence.

"No. And hold on, I'll play it here in a minute."

There was silence except for the sound of keys tapping. Finally, DiNozzo said, "Ah, here we go." He clicked and leaned back in his chair, a small smile on his face.

"The Night Will Only Know" by Garth Brooks filled the pen.

 _That night will live forever  
Their first time to lie together  
They were finally where desire dared them to go  
Both belonging to another  
But longing to be lovers  
Promising each other that the night will only know_

 _Parked on some old backstreet  
They laid down in the backseat  
And fell into the fire down below  
But they would pay for their deceiving  
For a deadly web was weaving  
Why they picked that spot that evening  
Lord, the night will only know_

 _Well, within the innuendos  
Just outside the steamy windows  
The night was shattered by a woman's scream  
Motionless and frightened  
The grip of fate had tightened  
And with trembling hands they wiped away the steam_

 _They saw a woman pleading  
Stumbling, begging, and retreating  
'Till she became the victim of her foe  
And they watched her fall in silence  
To save their own alliance  
But the reason for the violence  
Just the night will only know_

 _And every paper ran the story  
She was stripped of all her glory  
And they told exactly how the woman died  
Abandoned and forsaken  
Too many pills were taken  
And they ruled the woman's death a suicide_

 _Bound by their behavior  
They could have been her savior  
Now guilt becomes the only debt they owe  
But another crime was committed  
And it's never been admitted  
Have the guilty been acquitted  
Lord, the night will only know_

"Got that right," Gibbs said as he came up, spooking his team.

"What did Abby find, Boss?" DiNozzo asked, recovering quickly.

"Gear up. Take Ziva and go back to that alley. Search everything, triple check it, I don't care. Just find something so we can nail this dirt bag." Tony and Ziva exchanged glances and walked quickly over to the elevator. "McGee," Gibbs continued.

"Yes, Boss?" McGee glanced up from the computer screen.

"Got anything else on our witnesses?"

"Sure do. Turns out they work together at a—"

"A what?"

"They work together at a lawyer's office here in D.C."

"I hate lawyers. Where in D.C, McGee?"

"78 Constitution Avenue."

"Good work." Gibbs grabbed his gear and started walking towards the elevator. "Come on, McGee, you're with me."

The junior field agent quickly reached for his stuff and followed the team leader.

~*~*~*~

Meanwhile, Tony and Ziva were back at the backstreet—er, no pun intended—scouring it for clues as to what could lead them to the killer's identity. So far, they hadn't found anything. Suddenly, Ziva's sharp eyes spotted something: a footprint pressed into the dirt. It wasn't that recent, either.

"Tony!" she called.

The senior field agent jogged over. "You got something?"

"We have a footprint."

"You're—" He broke off and knelt down to examine it. "How did we miss this earlier, exactly?" He twisted his head around to look at Ziva, who was kneeling next to him. Their eyes met and he found himself drowning in her chocolate-colored gaze.

Ziva shifted her weight, lost her balance, and ended up falling into him. The two of them ended up sprawled on the dirt road.

Tony relaxed for a moment, enjoying the feel of her body on top of his. After a few heartbeats of staring at Ziva's face (and realizing the awkwardness of their situation), he cleared his throat and asked, "Why are you still on top of me?"

"Oh, uh. . ." Ziva scrambled off him and reached out a hand to help him up. She quickly snapped a picture of the print, and then answered his earlier question. "I have no idea as to how we missed that earlier."

"Let's continue searching before we head back," Tony suggested.

She shot him a relieved look. "Good idea."

Ziva continued searching along side of the backstreet, while Tony moved over to the opposite side. He kept stealing glances at her as he worked. His study of her was broken as something caught his eye. Leaning closer, he saw that it was part of a latex glove. There was a piece of black fabric nearby. He swiftly took a picture of them, bagged and tagged the evidence, stood up, and strode over to Ziva. "I think we're done here. See anything else?"

"No."

"Okay," he said brightly. "In that case, let's get this evidence back to Abby."

Ziva nodded, turned on her heel, and jogged over to the van. "I drive this time!" she called over her shoulder.

Tony hung his head in resignation. _Lord, don't let her kill me. Gibbs would never hear the end of it._

 

 **Finally, the song for which this fanfic was named appears! Yayz! *does happy dance around the room* Sorry, but I'm a fan of the guy who sings it and I like the song. I'll have chapter four up ASAP. It might take a while, what with school and all, though.**


	5. Chapter Four

While Tony and Ziva were at the crime scene, Abby was busy in Labby; Ducky was conducting the autopsy; and Gibbs and McGee were at the lawer's office.

Mrs. Reed and Mr. Sutton's boss was a slender, gray-haired man who looked kind of like Gibbs himself.

"What do you want?" he asked gruffly, taking a sip of coffee that sat on his desk.

Gibbs and McGee flashed their badges. "Special Agents Gibbs and McGee, NCIS," Gibbs informed him.

"I take it you're here about those two employees that didn't show up today, eh?" the silver-haired lawyer asked, leaning back in his chair.

"Yes. Well, sort of," McGee answered cautiously. "Who are you?"

James Sutton and Rachel Reed's boss blinked in surprise and set the styrofoam coffe cup down on his desk. "I'm Booker. Dennis Booker." **(And no, not the undercover officer from _21 Jump Street_ , if there are any other Jump Street fans here.)** "Can't say it's a pleasure meeting you, under the circumstances."

"Same here," Gibbs muttered. "Rule #13."

Mr. Booker glanced at McGee. "Rule #13?"

"Uh, Agent Gibbs has a list of rules," McGee told him, flicking his tongue out of his mouth. "Rule #13 is 'Never, ever involve lawyers'."

"Oh. Now, why are you here?"

Jethro fished out a photo of the deceased. "Petty Officer Jennifer Stratton. You know her?"

Booker studied the picture, taking in Petty Officer Stratton's vibrant red hair, tan skin, and green eyes. "No, can't say I do. Why do you want to know?"

"She was found dead yesterday. Your two UA employees witnessed her murder."

"Oh my God. No wonder they didn't show." He stared into space, apparently lost in thought.

After a pause, Gibbs pulled out his card and handed it to the lawyer. "If you remember anything, give us a call." Without waiting for a response, the silver-haired fox turned on his heel and walked briskly out the door, McGee a few feet behind.

When they were out in the lot, Tim said, "Do you think he was lying, Boss?"

"Ya think, McGee?" Gibbs asked sarcastically as he started the engine to the black Charger. The team's leader tore out of the car park and drove back to NCIS headquarters.


End file.
